Engineers have created a program that detects applications that gorge unnecessarily on a device's battery and lets users shut them down or update them.

Adam Oliner and his team from California's UC Berkley unveiled Carat this week, promising their program will improve the battery life of phones, tablets and portable music players.

Since being released, more than 36,000 Androidand Apple users have downloaded the app that quietly works in the background of devices, using little to no energy to work its magic.

According to the application's website, Carat works by using data collected from a community of mobile devices.

Once a user installs the application, Carat begins to intermittently take measurements about the device and how it is being used.

Bright screens and powerful applications have caused battery life to fall drastically in the last few years.

According to TechCrunch, it will increase ever so slightly each year at an estimated five percent.

Carat will allow users to enjoy their favourite apps even longer than before.

"The app intermittently takes measurements about the device and how it is being used," the Daily Mail quoted project leader Adam Oliner as saying.

"These measurements are sent to our servers, which perform a statistical analysis," he said.

After a few days of careful study, personalized results are sent back to the user in the form of advice on how to improve the machine's battery life.

"Carat changes over time as it learns; the longer you use it, the better the results get," the program's website said.

According to the app, Skype, Yelp, and Pandora are some of the biggest energy users.

People who are worried that sending data though the app will compromise their privacy should be relieved that all information is kept anonymous.

Carat collects what apps are running, the percent battery remaining, memory and CPU utilization, the unique device ID, whether or not the battery is plugged in, the operating system, device model, and whether or not the user is moving around.

The creators of Carat say that it is a research project and therefore they reserve the right to publish their results online and in academic publications, but since they don't collect any personal data, they would never reveal or sell it.

"We will never sell your data or use it to advertise to you. We hate that at least as much as you do," the developers pledge on their website.